In preparation for a meeting with city officials next month, the Park Slope Civic Council hosted a workshop for residents to discuss major traffic and general concerns they face living along Fourth Avenue.

“We need to acknowledge Fourth Avenue is a neighborhood, not a parking lot,” said AJ Avery, co-chair of the Forth on Fourth Avenue committee at the January 23rd workshop. “There are people here that care about these streets.

The group urged residents to attend the upcoming meeting with the Department of Transportation on February 12 at the St. Thomas Aquinas School, where residents will have the opportunity to share their street safety concerns and ideas to improve Fourth Avenue between Pacific and 15th streets.

“The idea of this workshop was to get people thinking about Fourth Avenue and build up excitement to get them to go to the transportation meeting next month,” said Avery.

Throughout the workshop, residents used a large map and marker to record every part of Fourth Avenue that they feel has traffic and other issues. They also wrote down a long list of traffic issues along Fourth Avenue that included cars driving too fast, lack of parking spaces and double parking that clogs streets, as well as safety issues for students who will attend the soon-to-open P.S. 118.

“I would like a pedestrian safety study for P.S. 118 students who will have to walk Fourth Avenue,” said one local resident. “Either side of the street there, you're screwed.”

Sarah Baird Knight of South Slope brought up safety concerns in her neighborhood.

“Besides some placed lights, there hasn’t been anything done about the unsafe corridor on 15th street and Prospect Avenue,” she said. “They removed the station attendants a couple of years ago, and residents have been attacked. For me I feel like its been neglected.”